The SEO and UX Benefits of Responsive Web Designseoecommerce-websitesite-designwebsite-performance

7/14/2015

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Responsive web design (RWD) definition

At its core - responsive web design is focused on serving an optimal viewing experience across devices of varying size. This means fluid containers that shrink and grow in a proportional fashion as well as a series of break points that change various points of the experience for the mobile user. The typical responsive website has all of it’s content on one page. This means that smartphone users and desktop users visit the same exact web address, but see different interfaces.

4 Major Responsive Web Design Benefits

Why do you care that your mobile users all have one web address using RWD? SEO is why you care. Here is why RWD is an excellent decision for search engine optimization as well as UX.

1. Google Says So

When it comes to SEO, this is actually a pretty solid reason. It makes sense from their perspective since it reduces the work that their spider would have to perform by cutting out the mobile subdomain that so many businesses have currently.

When a user links to your mobile page insteasd of your main page it can divide the link juice that is created by a natural link. Since links are a huge signal for ranking on Google’s Search Engine Results pages, this is a very persuasive benefit.

3. It’s Simpler than Setting up Canonical Pages

With all of the tools and education available these days RWD is less daunting than it used to be. Professional web designers are more familiar with the techniques necessary for RWD than ever before. Originally the temptation of making the mobile site on a separate domain was much more compelling than it is now. Especially since the code and planning necessary to ensure that none of the link juice is wasted is just about as complicated as setting up a few break points in the design.

If you are absolutely married to the idea of a mobile site - or what we affectionately refer to m-dots in the office. Then please get acquainted with Google’s guide to establishing canonical URL structures below.

Tablets are an ever growing form of web consumption. Many companies make the mistake of splitting their experience two ways (mobile and a combination of desktop/tablet). This is a problem because users are persuaded to purchase based off of the experience in front of them. In the same way a company will perform AB tests to find the best color and verbiage for a CTA on desktop, they will have to find the best result for the other two device types as well. It is unfortunate but these three devices rarely synchronize which interface elements they like.

Responsive Web Design Growth

Responsive web design is becoming more and more prevalent. Even in the enterprise ecommerce space where the technology wheels turn very slowly we can see a shift.

Responsive Web Design Examples

There are many great responsive design examples from Starbucks to David Yurman. A good example of how brands slowly peel away distractions for Tablet and Mobile audiences is presented below.

A Book Apart

http://abookapart.com/

If you would like to learn more about SEO, web analytics, or user experience as it regards to your website and Truvisibility you can learn more at http://www.truvisibility.com/en/blog. If you are interested in trying Truvisibility out today simply go to truvisibility.com and press the “Get Started” button, it is free and easy.